Product Description

Meet the Hunter family: Adam, a teacher, his wife Kate, and their children Hal, seventeen, and Charlotte, thirteen. And Prince, their black Labrador. It's Prince who is the narrator and protagonist of this tale. An earnest young dog, he strives hard to live up to the tenets of the Labrador Pact. (Labradors believe in 'Duty Over All', that duty being to remain loyal to their human masters, to serve and protect their Family at any cost. Other dogs, led by the Springer Spaniels, have revolted. Their slogans are 'Dogs for Dogs, not for Humans' and 'Pleasure not Duty'.) Mentored by an elderly Labrador called Henry, whom he meets each day in the park, Prince takes his responsibilities seriously, and as things in the Hunter family begin to go badly awry, his responsibilities threaten to overwhelm him. It all starts when a new couple move into the big house overlooking the park. Soon Adam is besotted with Emily, the beautiful aromatherapist, while her husband Simon seems to have played a significant part in Kate's past...Hal is tripping on acid and the house is invaded by his rowdy friends for a party; Charlotte's fallen out with Adam over her new boyfriend and tries to end it all with an overdose. And down in the park it's even worse: Henry has disappeared; Emily's dog Falstaff wants to lead Prince astray; has the terrifying Rottweiler Lear killed Joyce, the Irish wolfhound? In the end Prince is forced to break the Labrador Pact and take desperate action to save his Family. The Last Family in England is funny, sad, quirky, original and - incidentally - a brilliant reworking of Henry IV Part II.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #288444 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Daily Mail, 7th May 2004
Clearly destined to become a cult hit. I only wish my dog had thought of it first.

Waterstones Books Quarterly, Spring 2004
Extremely funny... One of the most enjoyable books you could read this year.

Ink magazine, May 2004
Highly engrossing, hilarious yet heart-breaking.

Customer Reviews

Dog Lovers Everywhere Will Adore This Book
This book is written in a style that any dog owner will empathise with, especially Labrador owners. Describing the world through the eyes of a dog is very hard to get right without sounding cliched but Matt Haig succeeds where others have failed. A truly engrossing experience. The Last Family in England is simply a great read and as someone who has to read lots of dog books every week this is one occassion when it was genuinely a pleasure not a chore. One of those rare publications that grab you from page one right to the final cover. I'd give it 5 paws if I could by 5 stars will do it justice.

Doggone good read
A new look at life through a dog's eyes, the responsibilities, and worries of the role. A compulsive read but sometimes disturbing and left me with a sense of loss even though from the outset you know the ending. This book will leave you with a different view of your family pet.

Duty over all
The Last Family in England is one of the few books in my library which hold the status of "read in one go". It's an enchanting insight into the breakdown of family life, told through the eyes of a black lab. Matt Haig has captured the role of the family dog perfectly and the story told is moving, funny and clever. The pace, prose and power of this book is unstoppable, it left me gripped from beginning to end.

This book is highly recommended.